I submitted a request to ride in an Amtrak locomotive, but that is such a rarely-approved privilege I had little hope it would ever actually happen. Imagine my delight when I was told arrangements had been made for me to ride in the “head end” of Amtrak’s daily Empire Builder during a Chicago-to-Seattle trip.

This weekend we read about a company created to get around carry-on baggage fees, capsule hotels in Hong Kong and a new ruling that will shift power back to pilots concerned with safety of their aircraft.